Cheating in poker

From
Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia.

[The following article was added to
the site for your education as a player. Many new players have
concerns about being cheated at poker online and offline. A
few bad beats in a row and their convinced their beating
cheated on. Well, there is a reason those hands are
called bad beats. They are exactly that, a bad beat. Bad beats
happen to the best of us. Having said that, poker cheats do
exist. The skilled ones are called mechanics. The following
article is from Wikipedia, and it is a very informative
article so if you have concerns about poker conduct/cheats and
your own protection than read on...]

Cheating in poker is any behavior outside the rules
intended to give an unfair advantage to one or more players.
Many people make the distinction in poker between
hard cheating (mechanics, collusion,
and the like) and soft cheating (noting the bottom card
that the dealer happened to expose without calling for a
misdeal). While the rules are explicit on the subject of
cheating in general, many otherwise fair players are tempted
to "soft cheat". Miscalling your hand (calling four hearts a
flush, for example--hence a "four-flusher: a
pejorative term for a person who makes empty boasts or who
continually lies verbally about specific cards he has.")
is cheating, while offering alcoholic drinks is not, because
each player can decline.

Contents

Introduction

Cheating is more common in poker than most people care to believe. Although most
cheating occurs in private games that do not follow strict
gaming procedures, it is also very common in regulated card
rooms and casinos. Cheating can be done either by means of
collusion,
sleight-of-hand (such as
bottom dealing,
stacking the deck, switching cards etc), or the use of
cheating gaffs (such as
marked cards,
holdout devices, glims etc).

Cheating is as common in friendly games as it is in
high-stakes games. A card cheat may operate alone, but most of
them operate in pairs or small groups. The groups are often
composed of one card mechanic who is in charge of manipulating
the cards, one or several shills who pose as regular players,
and a muscle who acts as a bodyguard. Street gangs also often
employ a wall man who acts as a lookout, however this approach
is more common with three card monte mobs, and back-alley dice
gangs.

Following is a list of terms used to categorize specific
card cheats:

card mechanic -- A card cheat who specializes in
sleight-of-hand manipulation of cards.

crossroader -- Originally, any kind of traveling hustler;
but now the term is mainly use to describe cheats who
specialize in hitting casinos.

Minimal-skill methods

The easiest method for a cheat, hard or soft, requires no
ability of manipulation, but rather the profound nerve to
blatantly cheat. Such methods include miscalling of hands,
shorting the pot, and peeking at cards. Such cheating should
not be tolerated. However, it is very difficult to prove
because when confronted the cheat often calls the cheating an
honest mistake.

A simple and fair way to go about preventing this kind of
cheating is to simply follow the rules. For example, "Cards
speak" is the common expression for the rule that no
matter what the player says, it is the cards that determine
who wins the pot. While it's barely legal to call a bad hand a
full house in the hopes that people will give up, the players
should want to see this hand: they paid to look at it. Should
such honest "mistakes" occur, it is best to ask the player to
leave for that evening. If it was an honest mistake, he is in
no condition to play poker (put aside your greed on this one -
he will come back). If he did mean to cheat, he can't do it
from outside the game and is unlikely to come back.

The minimal skill methods of cheating occur far more often
than one might suspect. It is common for a player who has
folded to appoint himself tender of the pot, stacking chips,
counting them, and delivering them to the winning player, just
so he doesn't have to get up. Nobody seems to notice the chip
palmed in the hand of this helpful player. This is called
check-copping. This happens a lot. In fact, odorless
adhesive can be used for this purpose. Once again, the answer
is to follow the rules. Only at the showdown should a player
touch the pot. In fact, it is a considerate player who obeys
the rule concerning placing chips in the pot; the player does
not throw the chips in the pot (splashing) but places them in
an easily counted stack in the center of the table.

Cheating can happen even when the cheat does not have the
deal. In draw poker, a player can discard two cards,
throwing these two in the pile of discards so as to avoid
counting (or if there is no pile, throw them on top of another
player's discards), while calling for three. Not only does the
cheat get the one card advantage in this hand, but before the
showdown, he can ditch this extra card in his lap or vest, and
thereby retain this one card advantage throughout the game. In
this case, it is the dealer's job to regulate the discards,
and to ensure the fairness of the process. In a way, this is
the most fair. In exchange for the huge positional advantage
the dealer has, he has responsibilities to occupy his time.

Marked cards

The most known method of cheating is using marked cards. The cards are printed or altered such that
the cheater can know their value while only looking at the
back. The ways of marking are far too numerous to
mention, but certain broad types can be mentioned. A common
way of marking cards involves marks on a round design on the
card so as to be read like a clock (an ace is marked at one o'
clock and so on until the king which is not marked). Shading a
card by putting it in the sun or scratching the surface with a
razor are ways to mark an already printed deck.

Much talk and advertisement has been about concerning
"colored readers", that is, marked cards that can only be read
with the use of color filtered glasses or
contact lenses. While such decks are available, they are
painfully obvious to the observant poker player. Many cheating
authorities mention the idea that while wearing contact lenses
they always slip off-kilter to the
pupil, therefore a red (the most common color) crescent
will be visible on the
sclera around the
iris.

"Juice" is a substance used to mark cards in a
subtle way so as to avoid detection. Apparently one has to be
"taught" to read juice patterns, but once taught, one can read
(hence the term for marked cards "readers") them from across
the table. An easy way to protect yourself from marked decks
is to as the cheats say "go to the movies". The idea is to
flip through the cards rapidly, treating the deck much like a
movie flip-book. If there is any difference in the cards, they
should become rapidly apparent. Decks can also be marked while
playing. A cheat can hold his hand in such a way that it will
bend or bulge in a position that the cheat can read from
across the table (called a crimp). In this case one
should remember it is stipulated in the rules that any player
may at any time request a new deck.

Moderate-skill methods

A cheat with moderate skill always has the option to
hand-muck, that is, switch their hand with one they have
secretly hidden on them somewhere. This may also be done with
a confederate (see
Collusion). Mechanical devices have been invented
for the purpose of switching hands. Though such machines are
outdated, the modern equivalents (clips that hold cards on the
underside of the table) should not be overlooked. The "hands
above the table" house rule is recommended to prevent this. If
it is done above the table, then anyone at the table can see
it. This type of cheat runs the risk that he plays the same
card as someone else at the table; at which time there must be
a cheat at the table. Most people, not wanting to point
fingers, will just end the game for the evening.

Skilled methods

Never doubt that a skilled cheat may deal a card from any
place in the deck. A skilled cheat can deal the second card,
the bottom card, the second from bottom card, and the middle
card. The idea is to "cull", or to find the cards one
needs, place them at the bottom, top, or any other place the
cheat wants, then false deal them to himself or his
confederate. Suppose the cheat is next to deal. In the
previous showdown, there are four sevens in different hands.
The cheat pick up the cards so that all four sevens end up on
the bottom of the deck. He then false shuffles the deck and
deals himself the four sevens off the bottom of the deck.

Beware of anyone gripping the deck with the index finger
in front of it. This is referred to as the mechanics grip.
It not only allows better control of the cards, but provides
cover as, showing the back of the top card, and without
moving the hand holding the deck.

Beware any shuffle instantly followed by a cut. This is
a well known way to undo a shuffle. The idea is that, as the
halves of the deck are taken apart, the bottom half is
shuffled so its top card is on top. Cutting the cards, and
in doing so, unweaving the interlaced cards, places the
bottom half right where it started. Completing the cut
places the deck in its original order.

Dealing mechanics

Despite all this high power
sleight of hand, the cheat still won't win money with four
sevens if everyone else has a bust, so the cheat stacks two
hands. Obviously the cheat will get the better one. Let's say
he has two hands one on the bottom of each half of the deck,
ready to shuffle (let's say four kings and four aces). All the
cheat has to do is to shuffle the two halves PERFECTLY, that
is, alternating from one half to the other. When done with the
whole deck this is called a faro shuffle. This places
in alternating order on the bottom of the deck the cards
K,A,K,A,K,A,K,A. He can then false shuffle to
his heart's content without disturbing those eight bottom
cards, and begin dealing. When he gets to his mark, he deals
that player the bottom card. He deals himself bottoms too.
This places the big fish with four kings, a real betting hand,
and the cheat with four aces, hence the cheat cleans up. This
is called the double duke.

The best way to foil mechanics of this nature is to
burn
them, to watch their hands at all times and to always insist
on a cut. This may not prevent them from cheating, but it
forces them to undo the cut - a difficult and dangerous
move. Only world class cheats will undo a cut while being
burned. Note: no other shuffling or cutting is allowed after
EVERY player is offered the option of cutting. A cheat may
bend the entire deck so as to reveal where the cut was, so
that his confederate sitting to his left may undo the cut or
he may do so himself should the appropriate distraction
present itself.

Switching decks

This pales in comparison to the granddaddy of all cheating
- the "cold deck". After all the shuffling and cutting
has been done (everyone nicely pacified) the cheat can switch
the deck for one he has stacked beforehand so that everyone
has a real betting hand, but, of course, the cheat has the
best one. Other versions of the "cold deck switch" utilize the
cutting sequence to perform the "work." Any deck switch is
difficult, and may require distraction, but once done,
no other sleights are necessary to win. The only defense is to
simply always watch the deck. Many players believe that it is
bad luck to look at your cards before the dealer is finished
as you might miss your opponents' reactions to their cards,
and might miss burning the dealer.

Collusion

One of the easiest ways to cheat at
poker is with a partner or many partners, called
collusion. This is basically playing differently against
one or more players than you do against others at the table
(in contrast to mechanics, which is directly manipulating cards or chips
in violation of the rules). The gravity of such cheating
ranges from the subconscious to the conspiratorial. Some
common forms of collusion are soft play, that is,
failing to bet or raise in a situation that would normally
merit it because of your opponent; whipsawing, where
partners at opposite ends of the table raise and reraise each
other to trap players in between; and dumping, or
deliberately losing to a partner (perhaps someone you are
backing financially or with whom you have traded a percentage
stake). Signalling (that is, trading information
between partners) is probably the most egregious example of
such cheating, but all of these are considered bad play and
should not be tolerated at any poker game.

In friendly games it is common to be playing against
someone you know well. Perhaps your spouse may be playing at
the game with the rest of your friends. Suddenly your luck
turns for the worse. Subconsciously, you are less willing to
take the money of the people you know or love. Perhaps one
fellow has been getting bad hands all evening, and you know he
has car payments to make, and this changes the game being
played. The best advice is to leave friendship outside the
poker game. Especially in
tournament poker, soft-playing a friend is cheating all of
the other players out of their chance to see you bust your
friend, getting them closer to the prize money.

For this reason, there are laws in some
U.S. states saying that a husband and wife cannot play
poker at the same table. Perhaps the easiest way to exploit
such a situation is to agree to split the profits (after all,
couples often have shared bank accounts). Even without any
explicit collusion during the game, this reduces the variance
of the team as a whole.

It should come as no surprise that two people sharing
information about their hands enjoy a great advantage over the
other players. If you do not believe this, deal out a few
poker hands, but deal yourself two. The idea is that these
players signal one another and only play the better of the two
hands. Signals can take many forms, from the placement of the
chips on the cards to
morse code tappings on the table. The key ingredient in
all signaling systems is the ability to be repeated
unobtrusively. In order for this advantage to make money it
has to be done many times without someone realizing it. In a
game where people (hopefully) are always watching each other,
this can prove problematic. When a cheat is signaling the
value of his hand to his partner, he is also signaling the
value of his hand to everyone at the table. The result of a
system of signals being figured out is nothing short of
financial disaster. Some games are more susceptible to this
kind of cheating than others: in Five-card stud and
Lowball, for example, signalling the rank of just one card
can give another player sufficient information to make many
otherwise difficult decisions.

Collusion in online poker is relatively easy and much more
difficult to spot if executed well. The main reason is that
the cheaters can engage in instant messaging discussing their
cards with no one looking at them. Sometimes the same person
can be using two or more computers and playing under different
aliases. This gives him an advantage that's difficult to work
against. However many poker rooms have imposed a maximum of
one account per household, though a determined cheater can
still bypass this by using multiple connections thus having
different IP addresses. However, online poker sites keep
records of every hand played, and collusion can often be
detected by finding the appropriate pattern. Many sites also
offer head-to-head (heads-up) games, where collusion is
not useful.

Another concern in online poker is the use of software
called "bots" (short for computer
robots). These are programs that make decisions on behalf
of the player based on odds etc. and also play on their
behalf. Though their accuracy and ability has been questioned,
it has nevertheless been seen as unfair practices by the poker
room and has sought to ban them. With improvements in software
and hardware it is expected that in the near future a bot that
can beat a human consistently is a near certainty.

Should two people wanting to cheat be in close proximity,
they might decide to hand-muck. That is, to switch hands or
alter them in some way (though this particular form of
cheating might be considered mechanics rather than collusion).
A simple idea of this is to have two people sitting next to
each other in a game of draw poker. While they receive two mediocre hands, they
could switch certain cards between themselves in order to form
a worthless hand and a winner. There are many
sleight of hand methods to this. Hand-mucking is also a
problem in
blackjack.

Perhaps the most odious way of cheating with a partner is
to have a weekly game at your house, agreeing with all your
regular players that you split the profit from cheating a
single player. This hot-seat game invites a new player every
week, only to play against six players all working together.
The mechanics are the same, players signal their hands, then
play proceeds as to drive the hot-seat out, or to put all his
money in the pot.

If you are at a poker game and you detect that your
opponents are cheating, but are not very good at it, you can
use this information to your advantage. You may be better off
exploiting their inept cheating than leaving or turning them
in. Dr. Frank R. Wallace wrote a book on this, in which he
coined the term neocheating (He later developed a
philosophy called
Neo-Tech. The book consists of 2 parts easy to spot
cheating techniques (marking the deck, crimping cards, false
cuts, etc) and 5 parts philosophical content and stories.

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